Barry O'Keefe

The Honourable Justice Barry O’Keefe, AM Queen’s Counsel, "is a distinguished lawyer, arbitrator and former judge. He is currently a consultant with Clayton Utz, a law firm in Australia. He specialized in commercial and construction law and probity matters.

"In 2004, Judge O’Keefe retired from the New South Wales Supreme Court having enjoyed a long career as an advocate, Chief Commercial Court Judge, Commissioner of the New South Wales Independent Commission against Corruption and Supreme Court Judge. Since 1990, he has been a Fellow of the Institute of Arbitrators. In addition, he was Governor of the Australian Advocacy Institute for seven years. Throughout his career, he was pre-eminent in the fields of common law, commercial and construction disputes and has appeared in many of the major related cases and Royal Commissions in Australia and abroad.

"After graduating with Honours in Law from the University of Sydney, Mr. O’Keefe was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1957 and appointed Queen's Counsel in 1974. He became Chief Judge of the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1993.

"Moreover, Judge O’Keefe has been President of the National Trust of Australia since 1991, Chairman of the International Anti-corruption Conference and Chairman of INTERPOL’s International Group of Experts on Corruption (IGEC). He was also Commissioner of the Independent Commission against Corruption from 1994 to 1999, President of the New South Wales Bar Association, President of the Local Government Association of New South Wales and the longest-serving Mayor of Mosman (New South Wales).

"Judge O’Keefe has received many academic and civic awards, including the Order of Australia and the Centenary Medal, and he was also appointed Freeman of the City of London in 1991. The University of Notre Dame, Sydney, Australia appointed him adjunct professor in 2006. He chairs the Law Advisory Board of the Notre Dame School of Law."


 * Director, International Institute of Public Ethics